Jacques Marquette—Louis Jolliet
Monument, 1926
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
24th and
Marshall Boulevards, one block west of California Avenue
Commissioned by the B. F. Ferguson Fund, this monument is
intended to memorialize the site where two French explorers, Jesuit missionary
Jacques Marquette (1645-1675) and trader Louis Jolliet (1645-c.1700),
accompanied by an Algonquin Indian guide, realized that a canal could link the
entire Great Lakes system with the Mississippi watershed. During the summer of
1673, Marquette and Jolliet made their historic voyage to the Indian portage
(wetland) between the Des Plaines River and the south branch of the Chicago
River.
The Beaux-Arts trained sculptor Hermon A. MacNeil created
statues for the Electricity Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
and, soon after, received a commission to decorate the Marquette Building. His
four bronze narrative panels depicting the travels of Marquette and Jolliet may
be found above the elaborate bronze doors on the Dearborn Street side.
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